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What kinds of things are you doing for afterschooling?


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I know we listed some in the Roll Call thread, but I would love to hear what others are doing.

 

I mentioned the MIT Scratch software. We also have an NXT that is built and programed on a regular basis. (My oldest is on the Lego Robotics team at school, too.) At the moment, we are reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which is also being used as his independent reading for language arts class.

 

My first grader loves to do math. So we do a lot of three digit multiplication problems. Since Georgia's new math curriculum is meant to promote critical thinking, we try to do that at home, too. Another thing we do is read the Magic Tree House books, the corresponding research guide, and plan a trip to the area of the world in which the book is set. We are working on Egypt right now. We don't actually go on these trips, but it is fun to plan them.

 

I am teaching geometry this semester, and I like to do hands on activities with my students. So my kids are testing a lot of these out for me. Like finding the area of odd shaped rooms in my house.

 

So what are you all doing? What are your favorite resources? I would love to hear about critical thinking and logic resources you may have.

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We use Story of the World. I love the Cd's to use in the car and we do the workbook pages and discussion at home. We are also using Prima Latina for my youngest and Latina Christiana for our oldest. Rosetta Stone for Spanish. I also want to start my oldest on some type of word root work. I have English from the Roots Up and might start using it.

 

Homework has been much more this year than I'd like, so we mostly work on the weekends.

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With my 8yo dd, we loosely use the ideas from http://www.bravewriter.com and The Writer's Jungle. We encourage her writing and reading. She enjoys the ss and science units from school, so we try to plan fieldtrips around the units, and read books or watch movies that complement the content. DD needs extra practice with math, so we use the RightStart math games instead of straight drill.

 

My almost 6yo ds is a math-aholic. His needs are not being met in his half-day K program so we are using Right Start C at home. He is currently reading and rereading the Capt. Underpants series. He is also very into paper airplanes and MS flight sim. right now so dh is teaching him a bit of ground school type of aerodynamic stuff.

 

And, of course, we try to pick quality read-aloud books for bedtime reading.

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Ds (14, 9th grade) is doing Spielvogel's Human Odyssey (used for ds1 when homeshooling) for history along with Atlas of the World. He has been reading the Famous Men series from Greenleaf too. I have to make up a list of fiction for him to read while in the car or before bed. I might start with Plutarch (sp?). This summer, I am going to start him on Alg. II/Trig. so he can review Alg. since he is taking Geometry in school.

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I supplement dd's (grade 3) education with Math and Latin. I've always done Math with her. We used Right Start from the beginning through the first part of D and then I switched to Saxon 54. We work through the lessons together and it takes about a half hour. She's also taking a local Latin class with the author of Lively Latin.

 

Our read-alouds at bedtime are of my choosing. She's gotten use to it! I can tell when she likes what I've chosen and she usually does. Sometimes what she likes surprises me. I picked up Bernard Evslin's Medusa from the Monsters of Mythology series from the library and now she wants to read them all. I like his writing style and he includes art from classical times to the present in the books. Even ds (age 5) is enthralled.

 

Jenelle

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M/W/F dd (7/1st gr.) and ds (5/K a.m.) spend 15-20 minutes with FLL, and then about 30 with dd's Saxon Math 2. Ds is a little math wiz so he often keeps right up with her. After morning kindergarten, ds uses Saxon 1 (just so we don't have any gaps) and that's about all he's up for. He still tires in the afternoons. Dd works on her homework after school, or often practices SpongeBob Typing or geography using sheppardsoftware.com (great for all ages, by the way!).

 

T/Th we practice spelling for the first 15-20 minutes. Dd's finishing up Horizons Spelling 1 while ds practices his spelling words for his kindergarten class or works on his homework. Then dd uses Writing Strands 2 for 30 minutes or so. Ds sometimes sits in with this, sometimes does his own thing, sometimes removes himself completely. After kindergarten, ds and I do activities with LLATL Blue Level, although he's a very good reader and we may switch to something a little more his speed. After school we use Science in a Nutshell kits, currently Planets and Stars, which they really look forward to.

 

At bedtime, we read from SOTW 2 while the kids color the student pages. They LOVE this and request it often! We try to read from the text 3 times per week, and the other nights read books from the SOTW book lists which we get from the public library. I greatly miss the activities, but that's just one thing I chose to cut in order to fit it all in.

 

So, this being our first year afterschooling, not homeschooling, I wasn't sure how I could make it work. Of course, there are so many things I want to do that we just can't, but it's all about priorities I guess. I will definitely add Latin (Prima Latina) in a year or two somehow because it is proving IMMENSELY beneficial to my oldest who entered public high school this year.

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